Chapter 4 - THE PRICE OF SILENCE
Gabriel had buried Marco Bellini beneath the lake in his imagination so many times that he sometimes forgot the actual burial had never been witnessed.
Marco, the rival whose relationship with Isabella had ignited a gang war, had disappeared after an ambush eight months earlier. Gabriel's men recovered a burned vehicle, a blood-soaked coat, and Marco's ring. No body. Gabriel had called it justice because he needed the war to end.
Now a photograph suggested that someone had been playing a longer game.
Dr. Price insisted on meeting in a neutral location with her attorney present. Gabriel arrived with Carmine, who waited outside. Price showed him the image and the audit findings but refused to hand over confidential records.
“Do not send men after the physician,” she warned. “If you contaminate this investigation, the person who hurt Leo wins.”
Gabriel stared at Keller's smiling face. “You believe my nephew was harmed deliberately?”
“I believe we have discrepancies that demand investigation. I won't pretend they're proof of intent.”
At the same time, Elena received a notice that her landlord had filed to terminate her lease over alleged property damage. Her bank account had been frozen for suspected fraud. The collection agency holding her mother's medical debt called twice before lunch.
A stranger had found three ways to punish her without ever coming near her.
She visited the free legal clinic where she had once volunteered. Attorney Rebecca Shaw listened without interruption, then began making calls. Shaw could not promise to save Elena's nursing license. She could challenge retaliation, secure her apartment, and ensure that any board investigation heard the complete facts.
“You saved a child,” Shaw said. “But we have to defend what you actually did, not turn you into a superhero who can ignore every rule.”
“That's all I want.”
Back at the hospital, Isabella found a folded note tucked into the blanket bag she had brought from home. It was written in Marco's unmistakable slanted handwriting.
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS TO ME, ASK ABOUT THE BLUE ROOM.
She carried it to Gabriel. His face drained when he saw it.
“The blue room,” he repeated.
“Do you know what it means?”
Gabriel had heard those words once before. His father used them to describe a hidden office in the family's former shipping headquarters, a place where cash records and blackmail files were kept before the building was sold.
“I know where to start.”
He sent Carmine to verify who currently owned the property. Carmine returned with an unexpected answer: a medical investment company called Northstar Children's Holdings had purchased the old warehouse six years earlier.
One of Northstar's directors was Harrison Keller.
Gabriel ordered Carmine to keep the discovery private. Two hours later, the warehouse caught fire.
Firefighters arrived to find the doors chained from inside and the sprinkler system disabled. Gabriel watched footage of the blaze on a television in Isabella's room.
His phone buzzed with a message from Carmine.
I WASN'T THERE. SOMEONE KNEW WHERE YOU WERE LOOKING.
Gabriel looked through the NICU glass at his nephew, still fighting for every breath.
Then he looked at his own reflection.
May you like
Only four people knew about the warehouse.
One of them was his most trusted man.
